Colts running back Dominic Rhodes (38), who started Sunday with Joseph Addai injured, scores his first touchdown of the day by stretching the ball across the goal line in the first quarter.

It is a few moments after the Indianapolis Colts' closer-than-necessary victory over the Detroit Lions, and a freshly showered Dominic Rhodes is throwing on a T-shirt over his baggy jeans.

On the back of the shirt, in big, bold, brown letters, it reads, "Are You A Dangerous Negro Or A Soon To Be Endangered Negro?''

The question resonates with Rhodes, who has taken a long, hard, winding path from west Texas to his current place in the Colts' backfield. He has done some things in his life, regrettable things, things that showed a pronounced lack of judgment. But he knows he cannot rewind the past. More specifically, he knows he can't undo that post-Super Bowl DUI that got him suspended for four games under the league's substance abuse policy.

"I let everybody down,'' he said after the Colts' 31-21 victory Sunday, their seventh straight. He played a huge role, scoring two touchdowns and rushing for 86 yards. "I felt like I rained on the parade.''

But he has promised himself and his four kids and his fiancÚ that he will be dangerous and not endangered, that he will make the right choices from here on out, especially now that he has a second chance in Indianapolis.

"To me, the shirt says either you're going to become a smarter man or stay a dumb man,'' said Rhodes, whose younger years were difficult before he was adopted at age 15 by a Hispanic family. "I want to become dangerous. In all aspects of life. As a father. As a man. As a fiancÚ to my gal. As a man.''

Rhodes and the Colts both know the score: He is living under a zero tolerance cloud. If he screws up again, he will be suspended for a year. That will surely mean the end of his Colts career. It could mean the end of his NFL career.

He isn't thinking about the consequences.

"They brought me back here for a reason and that's the glory of winning the big games,'' he said. "So that's all I think about. It's all about accountability.''

As much as Rhodes needs the Colts, the Colts need him more, and they need him for reasons that go well beyond his ability to step in and carry the football.

They need his energy.

They need his edge.

They need his persona.

This is a team of poker-faced tacticians, with Coach Spock on the sidelines, with Perfect Peyton behind center, with Silent Marvin split out to the right side. This team isn't entirely composed of choirboys -- some of them can't sing a lick -- but by and large, the Colts are sorely lacking in players who are a little bit rough around the edges. He is an exposed nerve ending with legs.

"I'm kind of the spark around here,'' Rhodes said. "I like being hyped up, keeping people smiling, laughing, and when I get in the game, I'm still jumping around, because this game has taken me away from a lot of things in my life that weren't the best.

"When I'm out there, in those 60 minutes, I'm at peace.''

He's especially valuable on a Sunday like this one, when his team is going through the motions against the winless Detroit Lions. Not just during the game, but after it, too, when most of his teammates were whistling the company line.

"I just don't feel like we went out and took care of business the way we should have, is all I'm saying,'' Rhodes said. "I think we have a great team and have a chance to do great things. But knowing what the stakes are, knowing we need to win two games (to ensure a playoff spot), why not get this thing over early?

"That's what's frustrating to me.''

It's odd: Two years ago, when Joseph Addai was a rookie, we wondered why Rhodes started and Addai was the complementary back. Last year, Addai and the running game struggled from Week 6 on.

Now, with Addai fighting various injuries -- he couldn't play Sunday -- there's an understandable groundswell to play Rhodes more and Addai less. The bottom line, of course, being that the Colts are most lethal when both guys are healthy and at the top of their games.

A lot of guys grow up hard like Rhodes, but few have such visible scars, and even fewer inspire you to root so hard for them. Rhodes went from the Super Bowl -- and the case could have been made that he should have won the MVP -- to a DUI to a four-game suspension to Oakland and then unemployment before coming back to Indianapolis.

"The story of my life,'' he said, shaking his head. "I'm always doing things that hamper myself. Have kids real young, make mistakes, but you know, I'm learning, and I hope I can show my two sons what to do and what not to do, because I've been there. They're going to have a lot of advantages I never had, so they're going to have different choices. I just hope they can look at me now and see that I'm making the right ones.''

He's still a little bit dangerous. In a good way.

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Rhodes happy to finally make amends with team

It is a few moments after the Indianapolis Colts' closer-than-necessary victory over the Detroit Lions, and a freshly showered Dominic Rhodes is throwing on a T-shirt over his baggy jeans.